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RUTH ELLIS

1926-1955

LAST WOMAN TO BE HANGED IN ENGLAND IN 1955

            Ruth Ellis was born in Rhyl, Wales and was raised in Manchester. A former model and waitress. At 17, she fell in love with an American who was killed in action in 1944, Ellis gave birth to their son. Six years later she married a dentist and they had a child, he divorced her on the grounds that she was mentally cruel.

            Ellis moved to London and became a club-hostess and hooker and in 1953 she met David Blakely, 29, a racing driver who initially became obsessed with Ruth. Ellis refused to marry him and even though she got involved with him, she also got involved with his friend. Blakely became jealous and physically abused her, gave her a black eye, broke her ankle and continued to see other women. Ellis threw him out the door, but he begged for her to return to him but she refused. She later gave in and they moved in together in Egerton Gardens, Kensington.

            Blakely was still seeing other women, and after he hit her, Ellis miscarried their child. Worried he was having an affair, she followed him to an apartment in Hampstead, and heard him inside a room with a woman who she heard laughing. She knocked on the door and screamed, a window was broken and the police were called. The next day she returned, and saw Blakely walking down the stairs arm-in-arm with a young woman.

            On 10 April, Easter Sunday, Ellis found Blakely walking out of the ‘Magdala’ a Hampstead pub, she took a gun out of her handbag and shot him six times.

            Ellis admitted she was guilty and that she intended to kill him.Ellis trial lasted 14 minutes before it handed down a guilty verdict and she received the death penalty. Ellis didn’t appeal the conviction, however; thousands called for her sentence to be suspended. Ellis, 28, was executed at Holloway Gaol by famous hangman Albert Pierrepoint. Ellis became the last woman to be hanged in England.

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